Founded in 1140 by Adolphus of Holstein, Lubeck, in 1158, obtained from its Sovereign, Henry the Lion, the confirmation of a statute which became the basis of those it afterwards enacted, when it obtained the right of self-government. And the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, in 1188, granted and guaranteed to the inhabitants of Lubeck, both the maintenance of their laws and the right of reforming them, by a statute which Frederick II. renewed in 1226. The early statute of 1158, so far as it consisted of ordinary civil law, was probably, as well as the municipal constitution, of Saxon origin, and so far borrowed from Soest, a city of Westphalia, which, though inland, already carried on a pretty considerable commerce. But such an inland town could not furnish materials for composing a body of maritime law; and the regulations relative to navigation, in this early statute, are so few in number, that we must either suppose Lubeck could succeed to the commerce of the Vandal Cities, and carry on that commerce without laws or rules, which would be absurd; or we must hold that, until it inserted in its statutes rules of maritime law, sufficiently developed, Lubeck was governed by the customs of the more ancient seafaring people, whose territory it occupied and whose commerce it continued. But the magistracy of Lubeck did not delay the exercise of the privilege, granted them in 1188, of revising and improving their legislation; and a statute was enacted in 1240, which contains twelve articles on maritime law, and of which various copies appear to have been made towards the close of that century. About the middle of the same century, having entered into an alliance and copartnership with Hamburgh, for the prosecution of trade with Flanders, Lubeck adopted, with some modifications and additions, the series of articles of maritime law, for the mercantile establishments in

that country before noticed. And the code of 1240 appears to have been revised and digested of new in 1348, containing eleven articles on maritime law.

From 1348 to 1582, the city of Lubeck does not appear to have revised.its general civil code under legislative authority but various copies of the former code appear to have been made, with additions by private individuals, and to have been communicated to the neighbouring maritime cities of the Baltic; and, in 1530, this city established a special ordinance on maritime law, which, having been adopted by the Hanseatic League, formed a part of the statutes of that Confederacy. At last, in 1582, the inconveniences resulting from the circulation of copies of the collections of civil laws differing from each other and unauthenticated, induced the senate of Lubeck to employ commissioners to draw up a regular digest. This work, promulgated in 1586, is divided into six books, of which the last relates to maritime law, and its regulations, derived, in general, from the more ancient compilations, are still in force. In the course of the sixteenth century also, not merely the ancient statute of Wisby, known under the name of Stadtlagh, but also the more recent compilation of Wisby, which was printed in 1505, and of which there previously existed copies at Lubeck, appear to have had, in that state, the authority of subsidiary law.

Subsequent to the statute of 1586, there was enacted at Lubeck, in 1655, an ordinance on the manner of adjudicating maritime disputes. And Lange ascribes to the corporation of shipowners of Lubeck a series of forty-eight articles upon the police of mariners; but which appears to have been composed for navigation in general, without its being known where it was compiled. The maritime codes of Lubeck, even that of 1586, contain no regulations upon insurance. In this department, Lubeck appears to have followed the ex

ample of Hamburgh, and ultimately adopted the Ordinance of Hamburgh of 1731 on that subject. Reference may also be here made to Lübeckische und diver Städte Holstein Gebräuchliche, See und AndereRechte, published at Leipsic in 1707, in quarto.

Having thus briefly traced, historically, the maritime legislation of three of the principal free-trading cities of Germany, we may now notice the statutes of one or two of the less prominent trading cities, and a few of the writers in this department of jurisprudence whom the more commercial districts of Germany have produced.

In the year 1669, the city of Dantzic, and, about the year 1730, the city of Königsberg, established and promulgated their respective statutes relative to the laws of navigation and maritime commerce. In 1661, Stypmannus published, at Stralsund, his work entitled Jus Maritimum; reprinted in 1740 by Heineccius in his Fasciculus Scriptorum de Jure Nautico, in quarto. In 1662, Marquhardus published, at Frankfort, in two vols. folio, a work entitled De Jure Mercatorum et Commerciorum singulari. In 1686, Leickherius published a treatise De Dominio Maritimo. In 1668, there appeared the treatise by Strykius, De Navibus; and in 1710, his treatise De Cambialium Literarum, Acceptatione. In 1698, there appeared a treatise by Groningius, De Navigatione Libera. In 1719, Lubeck published a work De Jure Averiæ. In 1726, Heineccius published his works entitled Elementa Juris Cambialis and De Vitiis Negotiationis Collibisticæ. And the work of Phoonsen, on the laws and usages of exchange in the principal places of trade in Europe, was republished by Lelong, at Rotterdam, in 1755, and had been translated into French by Ricard in 1715.

With regard to the law of the Inland commerce of Germany, there may be consulted the following works:Thema, De Nundinis, 1650; Lyser, De Jure Nundinarum,

1654; Rhetius, De Nundinis Solemnibus, 1661; Horix, De Jure Instituendi Nundinas in Imperio Romano, et Germanico, 1752; Lubeck, De Jure Stapulæ, 1711; Bunau, De Jure circa Rem Monetariam in Germania, 1716; Boehme, De Commerciorum apud Germanos Initiis, 1751; Schott, Incrementa et Jura Mercaturæ in Germania, 1763; Raumburger, Grundsaetze des Heil. Rem Reichs, und anderer Konigreichs und Staaten, Rechte und Gewohnheiten in Wechsel und Commercion Sachen nebst einem Appendice, von Assecuranz und Sec-affairen Francfort, 1723, und Erneueste. u. verm. Ordn. in Wechsel u. anderer Handelsgeschäften Kaiserl. freyer Reichs-stadt Francfort a Mein, 1800. And with regard to the law of workmen, or manufacturing industry in Germany, there may be consulted Struve, Systema Jurisprudentiae Opificiariae in formam Artis Redactum, 1738, three vols. quarto.

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CHAPTER VI.

OF THE MARITIME AND COMMERCIAL LAW OF NORWAY AND ICELAND.

FROM the principal free maritime cities of Germany, we proceed, geographically, to consider the maritime commercial law of the northern kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. We have already had occasion to trace the origin and very extensive influence, not merely in the Baltic, but in all the northern seas of Europe, of the maritime laws of the Hanse Towns; and when, in the natural course of events, that once formidable trading Confederacy came to be broken asunder, its excellent legislation in maritime affairs commanded

the respect of its conquerors; and was, in fact, in a great measure, adopted by those very nations by whom its power was subverted. The great tract of country which is bounded on the west by the North Sea, on the east by the Baltic, and extends, from south to north, from the Elbe to the Frozen Ocean, appears to have been almost unknown to the ancients; but came, in the course of the middle ages, and in more modern times, after a great number of revolutions, to form the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. These kingdoms, although very frequently in a state of warfare with each other, have been sometimes united for a period, in whole or in part, under one and the same government; and we, accordingly, find a great similitude in their legislation, particularly in the department of maritime law.

SECTION I.

Norway.

The ancient chronicles of Norway inform us that the barrenness of the soil and the scarcity of grain forced the inhabitants to seek their subsistence by fishing, which the extent of sea coasts, and the vicinity of the northern seas, frequented by the whale, herring, and other species of fish, rendered easy and abundant. The nature of the country, too, intersected by arms of the sea, bays, rivers, and lakes, rendered navigation indispensable, not merely for fishing, but for the communication requisite for procuring and exchanging the necessaries of life. And the habit of living upon the sea thus became a part of the character of the Norwegians, and led them soon to profit by the superiority which gave them that element.

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upon